


Saving Captain Benjamin

by shell



Category: Kings (TV 2009)
Genre: AU, M/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 13:31:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13054980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shell/pseuds/shell
Summary: “What’s so special about these prisoners?” he asked.“It’s the prince,” Goliath said. “Jonathan, that they call Jack."





	Saving Captain Benjamin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [noharlembeat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/noharlembeat/gifts).



> Unbetaed; fixed some problems after reveals.

David’s cot felt like the finest feather-bed when he was exhausted--and he was always exhausted lately. The mobile unit where he was stationed had seen an increasing number of casualties over the last few weeks, and they’d all been working double or even triple shifts trying to keep up. He had to look at his watch to see what time it was when he finally got to bed, unsurprised to see it was nearly 2:30 in the morning. 

It seemed like he’d only been asleep for a few minutes when he heard Goliath call his name. This time, his phone indicated 5:45. He’d slept for more than three hours--that was pretty good, considering. “Give me a minute,” he said, and Goliath went to wait for him outside the tent.

He and Goliath had been best friends since their high schools had played each other in the conference baseball championship. David’s team had looked at the nearly seven foot tall, must-be-300-pounds Goliath and what David later found out he referred to as his “resting murder face,” they’d freaked out a little. “Guy like that should be playing football, or maybe basketball,” Derek had said. “Not baseball. Wrestling. He could be a wrestler.”

“What if he slides?” Scott, who played second base, asked. “Ain’t no one who could survive that!”

“All I know is, I don’t want that dude anywhere close to me holding a bat,” Mike said. 

Nothing happened, though, until the ninth inning, when David hit a line drive directly into Goliath’s forehead, knocking him out. David ran immediately to make sure he was okay; he didn’t even notice when his teammates called out to him to head to first base instead. They lost the game, but Goliath sought him out after, thanking him with a smile David could only describe as sweet. When Goliath invited him home to dinner, David didn’t hesitate to say yes. He’d eaten many meals at the Phillips’ household since, and his friendship had continued to grow over the years. David was as close to Goliath as to his brothers, not that he would ever admit that to any of them. 

But now wasn’t the time for reminiscing, not when there were injured soldiers who needed his help. “What’s the story?” he asked Goliath as he came outside.

“It’s prisoners,” Goliath told him. 

“Prisoners from Gilboa,” David muttered under his breath. It hadn’t been a question, but Goliath nodded to him anyway; it’s not like they would get prisoners from anywhere else. David doubted anyone who didn’t know Goliath well would be able to tell, but he was an expert at reading the subtle differences in Goliath’s expression--there was something else going on. 

“So what’s so special about these prisoners?” he asked. “Other than them being from Gilboa and getting treated here instead of immediately being shipped out, that is.” David couldn’t remember a time when he’d seen anything more of enemy prisoners than them being loaded onto trucks and sent to Ekron.

“It’s the prince,” Goliath said. “Jonathan, that they call Jack. He has a head wound near his eye and a gash on his shoulder they think needs stitched.”

David stopped short at the entrance of the hospital. “Wait,” he said. “You’re telling me I’m about to work on Prince Jack of Gilboa? Where’s Dr. Cerner?” He didn’t understand why they would expect him, a medic, to care for the prince, when there was a perfectly good surgeon in charge of the field hospital.

“She was called away to Ekron. They say she’s stuck in surgery, won’t be back for hours. Jones and Valconi went with her.” When David looked at him, Goliath shrugged. “You’re the only one with any training left, and General Mattick radioed that the prince should be seen to immediately.”

“All right,” David said, suppressing a sigh. If he was about to meet Jack Benjamin, he’d have preferred to do it freshly showered and in a clean uniform, and maybe after he’d gotten more than three hours of sleep in the last 36. Oh well--it wasn’t like the prince would have any idea David had secretly had a crush on him when he was younger.

David wasn’t sure if it made him feel any better that Benjamin’s uniform was in even worse shape than his. They’d put him in the largest of the curtained areas that passed for rooms and stripped off his jacket, leaving him in a t-shirt stained with blood and grime. There was a make-shift bandage on the ball of his left shoulder, but it was saturated with blood, and a thin line of it was making its way down his bicep. His arms were secured behind his back, and he had a black hood over his head. Despite all of that, his head was held high, his back straight, almost stiff. If it weren’t for the rapid breathing and the slight tremor in his shoulders, David would have pegged him as perfectly in control.

“Get those off him,” he instructed the guard closest to Benjamin, pointing to the black bag and the restraints. When the guy just shook his head with a frown, David turned to Goliath. “Didn’t you say Captain Benjamin had a head wound?”

“So it was reported to me,” Goliath answered, moving towards Benjamin and removing the hood. Benjamin blinked hard in the light, raising his chin a fraction. There was another sloppily-applied dressing on his forehead, but the only spots of blood visible on it were dark and dry.

“Captain Benjamin, my name is David Shepherd, and I’m a medic,” David said, crouching in front of Benjamin, his hands loose at his sides. “I’d like to take a look at your head and your arm. Are you injured anywhere else?” he asked.

Benjamin shook his head with a barely noticeable wince. Somehow David doubted he’d answered the question honestly; he’d have to keep an eye out for signs of anything that wasn’t clearly visible. “Okay, let’s take a look at your arm. I’m going to need his restraints removed,” he added over his shoulder.

Benjamin shook his head again. “Patterson first,” he said in a gravelly voice. 

“Who’s that?” David asked, looking towards the guard.

“He came in with me,” Benjamin said. “Took one in the leg and one in the belly. Take care of him first.”

“Where is he?” David asked.

“In the back,” the guard said. David frowned. The morgue was the only place back there. No one with open wounds should be housed in a morgue, especially not with someone with an abdominal wound. 

“I’ll tell you what, Captain,” David said, reaching for the bandage on Benjamin’s arm. “You let me at least get this dressed, and then I’ll go looking for your man.”

Benjamin scowled at him, but it wasn’t like he had any choice in the matter. When he asked again, the guard reluctantly released Benjamin’s restraints, and he brought his arms forward with another wince. “You try anything, and your man dies,” the guard told him, and Benjamin nodded. 

David put on some gloves and carefully removed the field dressing. “This will need stitches,” he said. Benjamin started to open his mouth, but David shook his head. “It will need them, but it can wait a little longer, as long as I get a pressure bandage on. It’ll take a minute, maybe less, but it’ll hurt.”

“Do it,” Benjamin spit out. “Then Patterson.”

“I’ll go check on him next, I promise,” David said. He worked as fast as he could, ignoring the grunt of pain from Benjamin when he tightened the bandage as much as he could without it cutting off circulation to the rest of the arm. “There, that’ll last you a while,” he said. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“I can wait,” Benjamin said. “Take as long as you need; just make sure Patterson’s okay.”

Jack Benjamin’s reputation was that of a dissolute playboy, a man who cared for nothing but his own pleasure. David was unaccountably relieved to find it untrue. It shouldn’t make any difference--his boyhood crush notwithstanding--but it did, and he found himself meeting Benjamin’s eyes with a reassuring smile. Then he remembered where this Patterson was and had to work to keep the smile from dropping off his face. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he repeated.

Fortunately, Patterson was alive and as well as someone with his wounds could be--which was to say, he had no signs of infection, internal bleeding, or peritonitis. David got his wounds packed as well as he could and used Goliath to intimidate one of the orderlies out of some antibiotics. It was the best he could do, and David apologized for not being able to give him something for the pain--their morphine stores were very low, and not even Goliath’s face and bulk worked on the orderly who held the key to the narcotics cabinet.

“As long as the captain’s okay,” Patterson said, even though David reassured him on that front twice already. He found himself charmed by the fact that Patterson referred to Benjamin as “captain” rather than “prince.” It made sense for David to do so--despite growing up in what was currently Gilboan territory, the Shepherd family had never considered Silas their king--but he would’ve expected someone in the Gilboan military to kowtow to their prince. 

“He’s fine,” David said, “and he was worried about you, so I’m going to go tell him you’re fine too. I’ll make sure the doc gets a look at you when she gets back, but I think all you need now is rest and antibiotics.” And plenty of IV fluids, nursing care, and a real hospital, but Patterson would have to make do with the second liter of saline David had hung. 

The lack of sleep was starting to catch up to him by the time he got back to Benjamin, but his hands were steady as he stitched up the gash on his shoulder. Then it was time for some dermabond for the cut above his eye. David caught himself starting to close his eyes and listing towards Benjamin as he held the cut closed, but he forced them open again, frowning.

“No offense, but you look like you could use some sleep,” Benjamin said. “I’d prefer not to get glue in my eye.”

“I’m fine,” David said automatically. “There, that’s done. I’ll just put some steri-strips and gauze on it, and you’ll be all set.” He got up from the stool he’d been perched on, blinking hard to keep from swaying.

“You aren’t all that bad for someone from Gath,” Benjamin said, putting a hand on his arm and looking up at him with a flirtatious smile. “Help me out of here, and I’ll make it worth your while.” Despite everything, the smirk he directed at David had his heart racing. It seemed his boyhood crush on Benjamin wasn’t as much in the past as he’d thought.

“Sorry, sir, I can’t do that,” David said, reminding himself that Benjamin was a hostage, not someone trying to pick him up in a bar. 

“Whatever, I’m sure my father is arranging some sort of prisoner transfer as we speak,” Benjamin said, waving his hand dismissively.

 _Prisoner transfer,_ David thought, and for just a moment he considered mentioning his brother. If anything could get Eli out of the Gilboan prisoner camps, it was the word of Prince Jack. But that wasn’t anything Eli would ever ask for, even if it were possible. 

“I’m sure Dr. Cerner will be back to check on you soon,” he said, “but have the guards get me if there’s anything else you need.”

“I’ll do that,” Benjamin said, and there was that damned smirk again.

***  
David woke the following day to find himself surprisingly well-rested. When he looked at the clock next to his cot, he saw why--he’d slept for nearly nine hours. Which made no sense--the most sleep he’d ever gotten on the front had been seven glorious hours, and that had only happened once. He cleaned up and put on his least dirty uniform, intending to head back to the hospital, but Goliath ran into him before he could leave the barracks, informed him Cerner had ordered no one to disturb David’s sleep. Then he dragged David to the mess tent.

The tent was abuzz with conversation; David heard “Benjamin,” “Silas,” and “the prince,” so he asked Goliath what all was going on. Goliath was always up on the latest gossip. Goliath frowned and shook his head. “I always knew Silas was a bastard, but I never thought he’d abandon his own son.”

“What?” David sat back on the bench. “What are you talking about?”

“There was a proclamation, all grand language like he does, about how Gilboa will not negotiate with terrorists, no matter who might be involved. The word is that Mattick is furious; he was sure there would be concessions made.”

“Silas really….” David trailed off in disgust. “Where does that leave Captain Benjamin?”

“No one knows for sure,” Goliath said. “I’m sorry, David.”

“What do you have to be sorry for?” David said. 

“You didn’t say anything, but I’m guessing you had hopes for Eli’s safe return,” Goliath said. Goliath was both insightful and kind, absolute proof that you couldn’t judge someone by appearance alone. David had always loved that about him.

David shoveled the rest of his eggs into his mouth, followed it up with some of the bilge they called coffee, and stood. “I need to go check on the prisoners.”

“I’ll come with you,” Goliath said.

“Hey, G?” he asked as they stood.

“What is it?” Goliath asked, looking ready to go wreak vengeance on whoever or whatever might upset David.

“Thanks,” David said, giving his forearm a squeeze and hoping Goliath knew how much he was being thanked for.

Goliath smiled at him, the sweet smile he had that so few people got to see. Not for the first time, David found himself wondering what might have been if Goliath had been interested in anyone but women, if things would have ever moved past friendship between them. But he couldn’t begrudge the joy Goliath had in his marriage to Bettina, a woman half his size with twice the attitude. David had stood up for him at the wedding; Goliath’s smile then had been the widest he’d ever seen it.

He shook off that thought as they walked into the hospital tent and ran into Dr. Cerner. “Shepherd, there you are,” she said. “The general has called me back to Ekron. The Gilboans are being held under guard in the morgue until Mattick decides what to do with them.”

“Mattick?” David asked. “What about the premier?”

“You know General Mattick has Shaw’s complete confidence,” she said, frowning at him; she was big on enforcing what she saw as the proper chain of command. “Just as you have mine. I’ve authorized one more shot of penicillin G for the other one, but that’s it, understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” David answered, hoping that would be enough to stave off infection.

She studied him for a moment, then nodded briskly. “Very well. I’ll see you again soon, I’m sure.”

***  
Three days passed without any decision from the capitol. The war seemed to be on hold, at least in their part of the front, and David spent much of those three days with the prisoners. Patterson slept a lot, and, thanks to the smell, the guards stayed out of the morgue as much as they could, so it fell upon David to, for want of a better word, entertain the crown prince of Gilboa. He kept waiting for someone to order him to do something else, but no one seemed to care.

At first Benjamin tried to charm him into giving away Gath’s secrets, which might have worked had David actually known any--Benjamin could flirt better than just about anyone David had ever met. Then he tried to beat David at chess, frowning when he only won about one game out of every three or four. Cards were next, and more successful for Benjamin, probably because he cheated outrageously, which David ignored. By the end of three days, they were actually talking to each other like friends might, and calling each other by their first names.

On the third evening, Patterson spiked a fever. David gave him aspirin and asked for more antibiotics. No matter how he begged, Dr. Cerner refused. The next morning, while he was caring for a soldier who’d cut himself in the mess tent, Patterson lost consciousness. He was dead by that afternoon. 

“I’m sorry,” David told Jack when he turned away from Patterson’s body.

Jack nodded at him, his expression grim. “I know you tried your best.”

The fact that they hadn’t heard anything from Ekron didn’t bode well--if they’d intended to keep Jack as an official prisoner of war, he’d have been sent away from the front already. That evening, word came down that Mattick was on his way. David knew it was most likely bad news for Jack, and so did everyone else. 

“I’d always hoped I’d die in bed of old age,” Jack said. “What’s the standard method here, anyway? Back home it’s firing squad if they haven’t gone with torture. I can’t decide if hanging would be better or worse. Either would be preferable to torture, so let’s hope they continue not doing that.”

“I wonder if they’re torturing Eli,” David said under his breath. 

“Who’s Eli?” Jack asked. 

Up until this point, David had been careful to keep his family out of their conversations, but he suddenly wanted Jack to know. He wanted Jack to know everything about him. “My brother,” he said. “He was captured by Gilboan soldiers six weeks ago.”

“Well, that sucks,” Jack said, and David didn’t know why, but something about his tone of voice struck him as _hilarious._ He tried to hold in his laughter, he really did, but first a snort and then an outright giggle escaped. Jack gave him a betrayed look, but soon enough they were both laughing so hard the guards came in to make sure everything was okay.

David didn’t go back to the barracks that night. Instead, he and Jack spent the hours before sunrise talking. David found himself telling Jack things he’d never told another person, like about the time Ephraim Samuels stopped at their farm on the way to the inauguration of Shiloh. “He gave me this watch,” he said, showing Jack.

Jack, in turn, told him about Joseph Lasile. “He was the only one who ever loved the real me, and the only one the real me ever loved.”

“I’m so sorry, Jack,” David said, covering Jack’s hand with his. He could hear the birds outside; it must have been close to dawn.

“It is what it is,” Jack said, shrugging. “Once your general has me shot, I’ll be a hero, a martyr to the cause. Until then, I’m an embarrassment.”

“I’ve never understood why Gilboa is so backward about things,” David said. “Same-sex marriage has been legal in Gath for years.”

“My father would say that’s what’s wrong with your country,” Jack said, smirking. “You’re all a bunch of godless degenerates.”

“There’s a lot wrong with my country, but God has nothing to do with it,” David said fiercely. “Your father is a homophobic asshole if he can’t see what he has in you.”

Jack stared at him. “You really believe that, don’t you?”

“Of course I do!” David said. Jack was brave, intelligent, funny, and, once you got past the Prince of Gilboa mask, genuinely caring. He was also hot as hell, and David’s crush had only grown since he’d met him.

That’s when the guards came in again. “We’re to take you to Ekron now, Captain,” one of them said. “For your trial.”

Jack’s mouth tightened for a moment. Then he stood, offering David his hand. “Sergeant, thank you for all you did to help me and Lieutenant Patterson. If there’s any way you could get word to his family, I’d appreciate it, although I’ll understand if you can’t.”

“I’ll do my best, sir,” David answered, swallowing past the lump in his throat.

***  
The trial of Jack Benjamin lasted two days, days that were filled with testimony about the cruelties of the war more than anything that directly involved Jack’s unit. That Jack would be convicted was a forgone conclusion. It was difficult to watch, but David, who still wasn’t doing much else, was glued to the coverage on his laptop. 

He was granted leave to attend the sentencing for some reason--maybe they thought he’d benefit from seeing the execution; apparently Dr. Cerner said something to someone about his “attachment” to Jack. His family tried to convince him to come home instead of heading to Ekron, but David refused to consider it. In Ekron, he’d at least have one more chance to see Jack, and maybe even talk to him. 

Goliath went with him--he insisted, and David appreciated his company too much to turn him down once he’d gotten permission. They were offered lodging at Premier Shaw’s residence, which was far grander than anything either of them had ever seen. General Mattick didn’t look very pleased to see them, but the premier had apparently insisted. When David shook his hand and thanked him, he said Jack’s only request had been to see David again, and he’d decided to grant it.

The morning of the sentencing, Premier Shaw asked for David to join him for a walk around the estate. Shaw told his bodyguards to stay behind, but he didn’t say a word to David until they’d made it past the ornate gardens and into the woods. “I understand you’re from New Canaan, David,” he said. 

“Our farm is near there, yes, sir,” David answered.

“That’s still Gilboan territory.” Shaw looked at him closely, although David had no idea what he was looking for.

“It’s occupied Gilboan territory,” David said honestly. “My father died fighting for that land. My brother and I joined up to honor that sacrifice and rejoin the country of our ancestors.”

“You’ve still family there?” Shaw asked. “Untroubled by the King’s men?”

“My mother is originally from near Shiloh,” David said. “That seems to have mollified them. She flies the Gilboan flag, and the folks around there know how to keep a secret.”

“I see,” Shaw said. “So if I needed some eyes on that side of the front, would I be able to count on you?”

“Sir?” David said. Surely Shaw wasn’t suggesting what it sounded like.

“I have a proposal for you, David.” Shaw looked at him expectantly.

“Whatever you need me to do, sir,” David said, moving instinctively into parade rest.

“This country needs peace,” Shaw said. “So does Gilboa. There are people on both sides who are willing to work for that peace, just as there are people who want war. I believe there may be some in my own military who are in collusion with the Queen’s brother to keep any peace from coming to our countries.”

“Everyone I know wants nothing more than peace,” David said.

“Does that everyone include Jack Benjamin?” Shaw asked.

David thought about the way Jack’s face had looked when Patterson had died, about the way he’d talked about the rest of his men, about his sister, about his dead lover. “Yes, sir, I think it does.”

***  
The next morning, as expected, they sentenced Jack to die at midnight--hanging, not firing squad--on the following day. By that evening the prison guards were asleep thanks to the drugged beer Shaw had distributed, and Jack was dressed in one of David’s spare pairs of jeans and a t-shirt. David, Jack, and Goliath were smuggled out of the prison yard in the back of a supply truck, which dropped them off at the side of the road close enough to the front for them to sneak across. They reached the Shepherd farm by dawn. The television was filled with speculation about his escape, even though General Mattick announced that it was only a rumor. Shaw remained silent, which didn’t help Mattick’s credibility any, especially not when Jack, who’d made it back to Shiloh only hours before his scheduled execution, appeared on every Gilboan channel, standing proud next to his parents and sister.

***  
David’s family didn’t understand why he’d helped Jack. His brothers were angry, his mother worried. David ignored them as best he could, focusing on serving as a conduit for communication between the peaceniks of both countries, not letting on how happy he was each time he heard from Jack directly. Jack was in nearly as much danger as David was, having to hide what he was doing from his parents and everyone else at the palace. David wasn’t sure how to feel when Jack said he was getting help not only from Reverend Samuels and his sister, but also from Andrew Cross, but he figured Jack knew best who he could trust.

He nearly gave up the day he got word from Jack he could find no evidence of prison camps--Eli had been killed, as had every soldier Gilboa captured. But Jack promised that he and the others were working together to find a way to depose Silas without any bloodshed, and David believed him. 

By fits and starts things got better. David traveled to Shiloh every few months; he met Michelle, Lucinda, Andrew, and the rest of the underground peace movement, which continued to grow and bear fruit. It wasn’t all smooth sailing--Goliath lost his wife when she was trying to get across the front lines with a message for Shaw, and David’s brother Ethan was killed a few weeks after that. It took two years for those working on the Gath side to depose General Mattick and move towards a true democracy, but things moved more quickly after that. William Cross was exiled within six months, and Silas retired to the country (to be with his mistress, according to Jack) a few days later. 

Jack refused the crown, presenting the country with a constitution and a peace treaty with Gath, both drafted by Michelle and Andrew, along with a schedule for local and national elections. The news was met with great joy and only a few protests in Gath as well as Gilboa.

David went to Shiloh to join in the celebration, and at the dance at the former palace, Michelle made a play for him. “I’m sorry,” he told her. “I’m afraid my heart belongs to your brother.”

“Does he know that?” Michelle asked with a smile. 

“He does now,” Jack said, coming up behind him. That’s when David realized she’d planned the whole thing. Jack pulled him onto the dance floor, and they were inseparable from that point on.

He and Jack were married within a month. Michelle married Goliath a few months later, and when they had their first child, they named him Eli.

Michelle was the first president of Gilboa, but David and Jack served as her secretaries of education and state. Damen Shaw’s son, Derek, was her vice president. Eventually, years later, after Jack and David had adopted a girl and Michelle had had two more boys, Gath and Gilboa became a single country, a democracy that celebrated Reunification Day every spring on what was once known as First Night. 

END

**Author's Note:**

> So I had this idea that maybe David was from Gath rather than Gilboa, and Goliath was a good guy, and then got inspired a little by volume 1 of Saga, and, well, this was the result. Hope it meets your request!
> 
> I had shingles when I wrote this, at the end of a rough semester at work, just before leaving for the holidays. I noticed a ton of needed edits after the collection opened, and then I came home & got a cold, so I'm only getting around to fixing them after reveals. If anyone sees anything else I might have missed, please let me know. (1/3/17).


End file.
